He argues offshore processing and denying asylum seekers the right to work are both in breach of the party platform.

"The consequence should be that Labor starts abiding by its own platform - they signed a pledge when endorsed as a candidate to uphold the platform," he said.

"If they're not prepared to uphold the pledge they should resign from the party. If they're not prepared to abide by the rules of the party they should leave the party."

Mr Rothfield says asylum seekers should be treated with compassion and dignity.

"It would be nice to think that we had, that somebody had, the guts to draw their attention to their obligations in a manner that they would have to listen to," he said.

"But I don't know what can happen other than that the national executive should probably take a stand in fact they should take a stand but if they don't then I guess we'll have to wait until national conference."

Mr Bowen announced the plans to release thousands of asylum seekers into the community on bridging visas last week.

However, he has denied criticism from The Greens that the new arrangements were essentially the same as the Coalition's proposed temporary protection visas (TPVs), which Labor once railed against.

"The Liberal Party way of implementing TPVs, as I understand it, is that after people are taken to Nauru, after they wait that time, then they're given TPVs when they arrive in Australia.

"That's not what we're doing."

More than 7,500 asylum seekers have arrived by boat since the Government announced the reopening of detention centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

It's a fundamental human yearning to be a part of something bigger than one's self, and maybe that's what drove my mate Ash to die, far from home, in a bloody foreign war against Islamic State, writes C August Elliott.